AN: Edited by Gremin Jack, perfect_shade and Nla Eid

1948, January 7th, in Hambruck:

Visha and I had just finished moving into our small apartment. It's a big change from our previous residence, but I didn't mind the small space. I also didn't want to burn through our saved up money and be forced to go back into politics just to have food.

I had purchased an electric typewriter to start working on two books. One about my life in this world, and the other one focused on economics and politics. Just because I wanted out of politics didn't mean that I wanted to completely isolate myself from society. The boredom and lack of comforts would drive me insane even faster than remaining in office. And there's always that off-chance that my successors might read them and benefit from the contents.

Speaking of successors, the newspapers already mentioned some election shenanigans in Caucasia. Their president used some creative loopholes to call for early elections, a full year ahead of the original planned date. He is probably testing my successors' response now that I'm out of the way. The opposition political groups in Caucasia were rightfully angry about that and have accused the president of trying to secure his position against a growing momentum against him. In return, their leading figure has been accused of being a communist by the incumbent Caucasia's government for his "oil profit sharing among all citizens" platform. I'm curious to see how my successors handle that situation, and glad that I'm not the one dealing with yet another international incident caused by idiots.

Then there was the Alsace-Lorraine referendum. The votes were very close, but the "remain independent" option won by a narrow margin. And so naturally, a vote recount is underway.

It also didn't take long for companies, organizations and wealthy individuals to determine where Visha and I are now living, because I was getting letters from them. Some were along the lines of "tour our facilities" and "discuss the future of our nation". Others were more direct about their intentions. They wanted me to be a lobbyist for them, or at least conduct speaking tours for them.

Sure, it was a much better paying job than even as the Chancellor-President. But to sell out my name to the highest bidder leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Reminds me of the "influencers" in my previous world that would advertise for a product that they have no idea what it is about. Even if it's something that I would have supported, I would have to tread carefully to ensure that I don't get dragged down with any mess that might happen.

Visha suddenly placed a letter on my desk as I was scribbling outlines for my two books. It was from Gunter Groz, asking for an interview.

Great. It's the two-faced bastard that would sing back-handed compliments for me in his publications.

"It seems that your favorite journalist is back." Visha teased.

A smile crept to my face. If I could stay one step ahead of him, I could use his interview as an advertising platform for my books. It would be ridiculous for me to say no to extra income when I'm trying to avoid politics.

1948, January 18th, at a coffee shop:

"Where's Tanya?" Elya asked.

"She's busy working on her two books about her personal life and the other one that discusses economics and domestic politics." Visha sighed, while stirring her coffee. "She has also been thinking about a third book focused on war and international politics, as a follow up to the economics and domestic politics book."

Elya hummed as she prepared a mug of her own. "Are you going to be the coauthor?" She eventually asked

"I'm not sure." Visha shrugged, "She has asked for my input and to look over some of her writing, especially when discussing her relationship with me, but not much else."

"For a person who loved to be on the front line and beat up enemy mages, and dived into politics, she's rather shy about being in love with you isn't she?"

Visha giggled a bit. "That's accurate."

Elya looked at her friend, and Visha could already see the gears turning in her head. "Given all that you have done as Deputy Chancellor, shouldn't you also consider writing your own book?" Elya eventually said, "I'm sure some people would be interested in reading about your perspective of Tanya."

Visha was silent for a bit. "Hmmm. That's a good point."

Both of them took a sip of coffee. Visha then asked, "How's work going with the new administration?" To which her friend was silent for a moment before glancing around and then putting up a privacy spell.

"The President, Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor all have very different perspectives and ideas." Elya started, setting down her coffee while she thought back to the amount of bickering she'd heard over the past month. "They had some sharp debates over various topics. What policies will they continue from Tanya's administration. Foreign policy with the Allied Kingdom and Francois Republic. The failed coup attempt in Suomi. The arguments over what to do with Captain Rickover. And the like." She shrugged, "The President is adamant about rapidly scaling up nuclear power plant constructions to increase weapons grade plutonium production for expanded strategic and tactical nuclear weapons, the Chancellor is opposed to tactical nuclear weapons and insisted on still maintaining the high safety standards which the President argued was too expensive, and the Deputy Chancellor would rather just shut down all of the nuclear power in favor of using coal to power the country."

"That sounds… lively." Visha put out before she then raised an eyebrow, "Although I thought we're the only ones that have nuclear weapons? Why would the President be so interested in expanding the arsenal?"

Elya sighed. "He believes that if we strike first, the communists would never be able to build their own nuclear bombs. All he needs is an excuse to utilize the bombs. Everyone else has been disagreeing with his 'first strike' policy."

Visha was silent for several seconds, such policies uncomfortably reminded her of someone…

"I'm sure Tanya had a different idea of how to utilize the nuclear weapons." Elya said, reassuring her.

Visha nodded, she shouldn't really care about such things now. Not when they're supposed to be retired. "I don't know if I should tell her about your concerns. The last thing I want to do is guilt trip her into being involved with politics again when she had just started her retirement."

"Well, all I can do is hope that the Chancellor, Deputy Chancellor, and others keep the President in check." Elya shrugged. "Although a more pressing matter they're dealing with is Caucasia."

"What's going on in Caucasia?"

"Some of the political parties there are divided among ethnic lines. Sure, there had been tensions, but while Tanya was in power, no one dared to play fast and loose with the elections. Now that she's gone, their president has been aggressively seeking assistance. Coincidentally, the oil companies have been his biggest contributors."

"Which might be why he's staunchly opposed to the profit sharing idea. So what happens if their president gets their way?"

"If the opposition boycotts the elections or refuses to recognize his win, or worse, he actively sabotages them, such as using arbitrary arrests or ballot stuffing, it could shatter Caucasia into pieces."

"Or force us to sink resources into bailing his rear end out of the mess he made."

"Exactly." Elya sighed before taking another sip. "And speaking of the communists, they also might be having a seismic shift in their leaderships. You probably saw the news about the failed coup in Suomi and how an NKVD cell was busted in Ulanograd when they attempted to instigate riots?"

Visha nodded. That particular incident had Suomi's government pushing to join the Nordic Council while simultaneously trying to get a foot in the door with OZEV.

"Well, while the dust was settling in Suomi, the head of the NKVD was arrested, interrogated, put on trial and executed all in the same day. Sometime later, a CSR intel personnel came directly running to an operations site in Hongkong. Their information mentioned that the Director of Central Investigation had launched a sweeping wave of arrests after his right-hand man suddenly went missing. Their Minister of the Interior coincidentally died in a car accident. We only got a limited amount of information from the asylum seeker before enemy agents violently neutralized the operations site.

"Really now?" It initially sounded like a good thing - their enemies culling themselves to their benefit - but then Visha saw Elya's annoyed expression and she started to think about it a bit more.

"...I'm assuming it's unknown what their foreign policies will be with new people in charge?" Visha says after a few seconds of thought.

Elya nodded her head. "Yeah, that's what kept me up all night."

1948, May 7th, in Hambruck:

"Tanya, you haven't touched the draft of your economics book for a few weeks." Visha spoke as she set a cup of coffee on my table.

I looked up from my typewriter. Right, I had something like six different drafts of how I wanted to approach those topics. Many of them were essentially conventional business wisdom and common social norms… back in my previous life. This is the late 1940's, not the 2010's. "I'm still trying to find a way to best convey my ideas. Some of it might be controversial, but I actually want people to give those a serious thought instead of immediately picking up their pitchfork and torches. Also, I think I'm going to be splitting the personal life book in two parts."

Visha hummed. "Well, when you were the Chancellor, people eventually stopped questioning you and followed along whatever you did without putting up much of a fight. I could see how it would have been difficult to pitch the idea of the People's Car when it was still in early development and long before being a commercial success in Europe and the Unified States. Also, did you see the news about Volksauto exploring plans of opening a car plant in South Bharat?"

"I did. And they're not asking for financial assistance from Germania for the venture."

I did see something in the newspaper about Volksauto and a Bharatian company named 'Tata Industries' establishing a partnership. Apparently the Tata Industries had a lucrative business in wartime production and is seeking to expand into automotive manufacturing.

Visha's facial expression changed as if she had an idea. "You could go back in history and explain all of your previous ideas, and how you eventually proved all of the doubters wrong. Then use those arguments to support your current ideas."

"It might seem a bit egotistic."

"Once they see how your thought process worked, they might have a better understanding of why you have those ideas. People become afraid when they see something they don't understand."

I took a sip of the coffee as I contemplated Visha's words. It was good, as always. Maybe she's right about me being too worried about being accused of excessive egoism.

Visha spoke up again. "Anyway, how is your autobiography doing?"

Hmm. I've also been a bit stalled on that. My only concern is inadvertently hurting Visha.

"It's also ongoing. I just needed to be careful to not offend someone."

Visha hums, "Well, if you get back to your economics book, I could look over your drafts for your bio and give a second opinion."

I sniffed the air. She was cooking something again. She'd been doing that a lot lately, cooking, I mean. Well, that and asking about my writing,

Wait a minute…

"Visha," I looked up to her and tilted my head, "Are you writing a cookbook?"

Her blushed face was enough to give that away. "I've… been experimenting with some recipes."

A smile creeped onto my face. I was just about to congratulate her verbally when an Idea struck me. "Really now?" I hopped off my chair. "You know what, I'd like to give cooking a try. I needed a break from writing anyways."

Visha had an apprehensive look on her face for a moment before she then smiled and said, "I wouldn't mind a comedy section in my cookbook."

"What?"

"Nothing."

1949, March 25th, in Hambruck:

I had sent off two of my books to the publisher for the third round of drafting after going back and forth with them for some time. The first book covered economics, socials and domestic politics, and the second book covered the first half of my personal life. The next set of books that I'll need to finish are for international politics and war, and the rest of my personal life. Visha was close to being done with her cookbook, although she was unwilling to show me what she had written in it.

I got out of my chair and walked to the kitchen to see what Visha had been up to. She looked up from kneading bread dough and smiled. "I'm close to being done with my drafting. I think you should take a look!"

I picked up the three ring binder that Visha had left on the corner of the table and took a seat to read through it as she continued with her baking.

The first section was a short story about how Visha met me, loyally followed me around in the first Europan War, drifted without a purpose after the war, met me again, developed an affection for me as I rocketed through politics, and gave me the first kiss in our darkest hour when I was facing off against the Francois Republic, Kingdom of Ildoa, Yugoslavia and the Russy Federation. Pretty much a very summarized version of my autobiography.

Each of the food recipes also included a backstory, including our cooking misadventures in developing the recipes, especially my misadventures. Coincidentally, many of the "don't do's" and "caution" were thanks to my cooking. The last portion of the draft called for a detachable section of the book where the recipes were no-nonsense, straight to the point.

Hmm… I could add some doodling to some of the recipe sections. Although now that I'm thinking about, what better way of conveying economic, social, politics and war topics using comics? Such as using chibi characters to convey the ideas? I recall seeing very straightforward, easy to interpret cartoons that poked fun at various topics. Certainly an easy way of explaining my ideas to the general public compared to shoving pages of dry words down their throats.

It's funny now that I'm thinking about it. I had given up on the idea of being a mangaka back in my previous life as a boy. With the crowded market for cartoons and the low profit margins, the pay would have been guaranteed to be terrible especially with the long working hours, and the "follow your passion" idea only gets you so far when you're struggling to pay for housing, food and even alcohol to soothe your pain.

It then occurred to me that she had already let the dough rise, kneaded it again, cut it into sections, shaped it, let it rise again, cut diagonal slits into them, and if I'm smelling them correctly, she's baking Frankish baguettes. I wonder what the Francois Republic would think of her take on their cultural foods.

'Probably celebrate their only victory against us.' I mused, mind wandering to the import from hell that is K-brot.

Visha walked over. "How is the cookbook draft?"

"Other than some minor suggestions, it looks good. It's bold of you to include Frankish and Idolian food in there as well. They're very particular with their cooking."

Visha giggled as she flipped through the binder to glance through my edits. "If they want to invite me to cooking competitions, I would love to partake in those."

She then paused when she saw my cartoons and went silent.

I was confused now of what she might be hung up on. "Uh, is there something wrong with my edits?"

"Tanya, remember years ago when I teased you about your love of Akinese culture?"

Oh, right. That conversation on the beach before the commies forced us to end our Maldives island vacation early.

"I'm not sure I understand what you are referring to?" I attempted to play ignorant.

Visha giggled again as she pointed at my drawing. "I saw the cartoons that went out to the Akitsushima Dominion with the food aid shipments. Do you know how many cartoon artists draw like that?"

…I am not ready for this kind of a discussion.

"That reminds me, I should probably apply for the local aerial lacrosse league's assistant coach job posting." I stammered as I walked off.

"Should I cook Akinese food for dinner? Maybe make mochi for dessert?" Visha teased again.

"No, no, I'm good!"

AN:

I didn't know that there was a "Youjo Senki restaurant" until Nla Eid asked if I was making references to it.

wiki/IBM_Electric_typewriter

Beria in RL had lost support of two of his direct subordinates, and their defection to Beria's rivals left Beria exposed as mentioned in this Youtube video: /Jh5WjJ0LBlQ?t=299

wiki/February_28_incident

wiki/1957_Defence_White_Paper

wiki/Revolt_of_the_Admirals

Nuclear landmines: wiki/Atomic_demolition_munition

Nuclear rocket launcher for infantry: wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device)

From the book on page 87, Ross, Steven T. (1988). American War Plans 1945–1950, which explained the US's early Cold War doctrine of relying on nuclear weapons in the event of a war with the USSR:

"The American-Allied response called for the establishment and defense of strategic base areas and the launching of an atomic bomb offensive. Designated base areas included the continental United States, the United Kingdom, Okinawa and Karachi. Bases in the Cairo-Suez and Basra areas were viewed as being indefensible. Cognizant of previous criticisms by the Navy, the JSPG admitted that Karachi was far from being an ideal base. The area was, however, easily defensible and thus useful in an emergency when forces were severely limited. The targets for the atomic offensive were essentially urban areas. Their destruction, the planners believed, would seriously disrupt the USSR's war-making potential and undermine Russian morale. Conventional bombing would supplement atomic attacks, and if resistance continued, atomic and conventional strikes would be mounted against targets in the satellite states and in occupied areas. The allies would also evacuate troops from Europe and take measures to guard vital industrial complexes from subversives, who, according to the plan, constituted a major threat to Western security."